Before the Island
by Crescent Moon Dancer
Summary: (Also entitled "Queen Lucy the Valiant.") Before leaving for Dark Island, Caspian and Edmund try to convince Lucy to stay behind in relative safety. Unfortunately, they reckoned without her unwavering stubbornness, and the support of her small friend. Movieverse.


**Hey everyone! So, normally I wouldn't write for the Narnia movies, because I really think they didn't do the books justice, but I just finished Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and I was really bothered with how Edmund and Caspian would just let Lucy and Gale go to the Dark Island and not protest at all. So I had to fix it. XD Hope you enjoy it! :D** **Any and all reviews are appreciated. :) Even if you flame me, at least I know you read it. XD**

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"Lu, will you listen to reason?" Edmund glared at his younger sister irately, though a hint of pleading could be detected in his dark eyes. "Who knows what lies on that island - you'd be in terrible danger!"

"You will too," Lucy retorted hotly. "And if you think for one moment that I'm letting my brother," she glanced at Caspian, "my brother _s_ sail off to that cursed island and leave me here, you are sadly mistaken!" Her fists were planted firmly on her hips, and her chin stuck out, aggressively challenging. Caspian and Edmund exchanged despairing glances, and the Telmarine king tried his luck.

"Lucy," he said gently, "you're young still, far too young to risk your life in such a-"

"Caspian the Tenth, I am two years younger than Edmund and roughly thirteen hundred years _older_ than you!" Lucy shifted her glare from her blood brother to the other young man. "I'm older than Edmund was when he went to battle against the White Witch and her army, and barely younger than Peter was." Her voice softened, but only a trifle. "Narnia is my country too. They're my people as much as anyone else's, and therefore my responsibility too. Nothing will change that."

There was a brief silence, and then Gale wriggled out of her father's grasp and ran to stand by the young queen. "She's right," she declared stoutly, her high, child's voice carrying clearly around the assembled people. "Queen Lucy is right." She turned her eyes to her father, the fear hidden behind respectful but stubborn determination. "Papa, Mummy was taken by that mist. If you get taken too, I won't have anything left." She lifted her round chin, trying to imitate Lucy. "I'm going too."

Her father started to say something, but Caspian forestalled him. "No! You will both stay here, on Ramandu's island; as your king, I command it!"

Lucy wrapped an arm around Gale's shoulders and tilted her head back to look the taller man in the eyes, scowling fiercely. "You're not the High King," she pointed out, almost rudely. "You can't give me orders at all - and since Gale is under my protection, I can override your orders concerning her."

Normally, the understanding girl wouldn't have flaunted her authority above Caspian's, knowing how insecure about his kingship he used to be, but circumstances - and an overload of rushing adrenaline - prompted her to throw tact to the wind for once.

Her smouldering brown gaze swept the gathering of sailors briefly before once more coming to rest on the two kings in front of her. Her jaw set, and she tightened her grip on the little girl standing at her side. "They are my people too, and Gale's mother is one of them. We're going, and that's final."

Without waiting for a response, she gave a toss of her golden-brown curls and marched down to the longboats without a backward glance, her arm still around her young charge's shoulders.

Drinian and the crew looked at their king, who in turn looked to Edmund. The youngest Pevensie boy shrugged helplessly.

"Not for nothing was she named 'the Valiant,'" he said, almost ruefully.

Caspian glanced down the beach to where the fourteen-year-old girl stood waiting by the boats, her posture erect, courageous, and determined, and his irritation was washed away in a surge of pride for the girl he had come to love as a younger sister. The deep admiration he felt was reflected in his voice.

"She is everything the legends said, and more."


End file.
